Old NavyDo we have a thigh gap Photoshopping epidemic on our hands? Are we just weeks away from The Gap changing its name to Thigh Gap?
In a word…probably not.
Old Navy is the latest company being accused of Photoshopping images on their website to give their pants and the models the allusion of a thigh gap. And by "models," we mean mannequins. Because the images in question come from Old Navy's plus-size section, and they use mannequin legs to model their line of jeans instead of humans. But hey, mannequins are people, too!
If you look at this photo of a pair of plus-size jeans from Old Navy's website, it does appear that someone went in with that eraser tool from MS Paint to put a little gap between the legs of the jeans. And after Target's photoshop debacle, the Internet is now on high alert and people immediately accused the store of buying into the thigh gap craze.
But while these images are nowhere near the epic fail that Target gave us, it still rubbed us the wrong way to see Old Navy trying to slim down plus-size attire. However, the company released a statement to Jezebel explaining why the gap was there, and it turns out they are not spearheading a thigh gap movement:
"At Old Navy we strive to show our customers the most accurate representation of how product fits the body. This includes pinning garments on body forms to show how they will actually appear. While we do remove these pins in post-production, we do not use any photo-altering techniques to deliberately distort the actual look or fit of our product."
On closer inspection, the image doesn't actually seem Photoshopped. To us, at least. But we're not photography experts. We just play ones on TV.
And to be fair, the plus-size models on the site don't appear to have any big Photoshopping work done, and we certainly didn't spot any unnatural thigh gaps like on Target's site.
So, Old Navy didn't Photoshop the fabric out; they just pinned it back. And that's a big difference. Or is it?
Discuss.